Looking Inside the Social Media
Social media has brought significant changes to society by immersing ourselves in the unreal world of communication and interactions. However, are these online platforms so good as they position themselves? Are they promoters of social welfare or its disruptors? Facebook is the core social media platform to which people are exposed. But what about other platforms? What is the effect of this monopoly on people’s social lives, including their conduct and daily choices? These questions immediately arise when Facebook is analyzed from another perspective, mainly the one that prompts viewing this social media as a negative disruptor in society.
Monopoly
The Big Tech companies have perpetrated their dominance on the national and international markets due to Microsoft’s creation. This period marked the beginning of the monopolistic growth, when the government always regarded as the most delicate of flowers, in need of more nurturing than the most finicky of ferns. Such a treatment granted Facebook, Google, and Amazon an opportunity to turn into the most valuable agencies worldwide. Sound interesting!
However, this excessive nurturing has made companies, such as Facebook too powerful. Specifically, Facebook started using its dominance and monopoly to suppress smaller rivals and minimizing possible competition. Such a situation is quite true because the revenue of Facebook sharply increased to $21.5 billion. To further enhance its domination, the company purchased Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and promoted WhatsApp's acquisition for $19 billion in 2014. Guess what will happen next? Big companies will decide the “winner” and “loser,” which will consequently control the world economy.
False Data Is Spreading via Facebook
Even though Facebook and Twitter position themselves as networking sites that provide users with an opportunity to keep in touch with the world instantaneously, some studies have revealed the verified true and false news has been spreading through Twitter for over ten years. Undeniably, incorrect information always travels farther than those that are true, which means that it tends to reach more people and adversely affects them.
Media is something that actually changes society in general as well as its people in particular. Go back to the elections of 2016 when media began to alter people’s voting conduct. Large-scale experiments involving more than 60 million people showed that even short messages could profoundly affect the overall voter turnout. Consequently, the outcome that is about to be gained would be devastating for the future welfare of society.
Breaking Up the Dominance of Players Like Facebook
It seems that it is high time to break up tech companies’ dominance and the monopoly corporations like Facebook have created. Essentially, the Federal Trade Commission has been involved in protecting clients from the corporate authority, which was known mainly for its inability but finally decided to act in the Trump administration days. But, how would this task be accomplished? Can the Federal Trade Commission beat Facebook and similar agencies?
Currently, social media platforms spend tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars on affecting the law that is beneficial for them. Undeniably, the power of these companies is enormous. For example, with $21.5 billion, Facebook allowed it to acquire significant power to fight against the agency with only 1,100 employees and a paltry budget of $330 million. As a result, the primary question that might arise here is: Who will beat? I think the answer for this question is ambiguous now, but I bet the Federal Trade Commission can help society address the disruption that Tech companies, including Facebook, is likely to cause. What do you think?
